1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle obstacle detecting device adapted to be mounted on a vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a vehicle obstacle detecting device configured to detect an obstacle in the vicinity of the vehicle by using a plurality of sensors whose sensing scopes do not overlap one another.
2. Background Information
There have been known technologies for detecting obstacles in the vicinity of a moving vehicle in order to improve the driving safety of the vehicle. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-31799 discloses an automatic travel control device that detects the position of a vehicle with respect to a traveling road or lane and controls the steering of the vehicle. In particular, the automatic travel control device disclosed in the above mentioned reference has a radar and a CCD (charged coupled device) or other cameras mounted onto the vehicle. In order to improve the detection reliability, the camera and the radar are arranged such that their detection scopes overlap to produce a redundancy. Thus, in the above mentioned reference, the detection using both the camera and the radar is executed.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved vehicle obstacle detecting device. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.